Terry Waters feeds his daughter, Alisha Waters, who was left a quadriplegic after her estranged husband shot her five times and killed himself in August. / Patrick Reddy, The Cincinnati Enquirer

by Terry DeMio, The Cincinnati Enquirer

by Terry DeMio, The Cincinnati Enquirer

CINCINNATI -- Alisha Waters listened to her father intently, then began an exercise, repeating, "Turn your head. Lift it up. Turn your head."

Terry Waters smiled.

"She's a warrior," he said.

The 31-year-old Florence, Ky., woman whose estranged husband, Dennis "D.J." Mathis, shot her five times Aug. 6 â?? leaving her paralyzed â?? is about to enter a new part of her journey to live a more normal life.

Waters was taken Wednesday by a critical care ambulance to Lunken Airport to board an ambulance plane to Atlanta, where she is being evaluated for rehabilitation at Shepherd Center, a private, nonprofit hospital that specializes in spinal cord injuries.

"Alisha managed with the (tracheostomy) collar the entire trip, however when she got to the Shepherd Center they drew her blood gases which turned out to be somewhat low. She's been on the ventilator ever since," her uncle, Edde Scudder of Amelia, posted on a website dedicated to raising money for her care.

Waters has made progress since her initial hospitalization at University of Cincinnati Medical Center. Early in September, she was moved to Select Specialty, a nationwide group of hospitals specializing in acute care. One occupies a floor at Good Samaritan Hospital in University Heights.

Waters no longer wears a neck brace. She's off the ventilator most of the day. Her feeding tube is shut off in the morning, and she is eating with help. On Monday, her dad fed her lunch, and when she was done, she insisted on her favorite dessert: Italian ice.

To Scudder, the progress elicits proud and bitter emotions.

"I look in her eyes and see possibility looking back at me," Scudder said. "I see grit and determination overpower the pain ... (when she) speaks with a strong voice instead of a whisper, or sleeps through the night without a ventilator breathing for her.

"And then I think, 'This must be what hell is like.'"

Waters is nearly always smiling, her family said, but she also suffers with bouts of "excruciating pain," said her mother, Tammy Russell.

Russell has been living at the hospital with her daughter, save for occasional weekend trips home.

She agonizes for her.

"It's hard to watch, and there's nothing you can do," Russell said. "One night she was crying so hard her chin was quivering, and there was nothing I could do."

She held and stroked her daughter's head, tried to soothe her as the night slowly passed.

On Monday, Alisha didn't want to talk about her pain, the shooting or how far she has come since then. She was living in the moment, rolling her eyes at "Daddy," as she calls him, as he humored her guests with stories, including one about a time when she was 15, bombed a test in school after not studying and was found out by her mother. "I was red as could be. I thought, 'Oh crap,'" Waters said, eliciting laughter from her parents and a cousin.

"She just wants to sit on the deck and drink a beer," Russell said. "She wants to be able to get up and go. She wants her life."

Waters' family is telling her story in the hope of changing Kentucky's domestic violence law, as Alisha wants.

"We are seeking an amendment to Kentucky law to clearly state that stalking and threatening via (text, email and social networking) are reason enough to grant a domestic violence order," Scudder said. DVOs place restrictions on a potential domestic violence offender, so he or she cannot come within a certain distance of the victim.

A DVO would have shown up in a criminal background check, preventing Mathis from buying a gun, which he did the day before the shooting.

"That's all the family and myself are asking with our petition," Scudder said. So far the petition has gathered 1,407 signatures at http://tinyurl.com/ny7cmpu.

Mathis texted Waters 186 times in two weeks prior to her seeking an emergency protection order, the first step toward a DVO. She received it on April 16, but was denied a DVO six days later. The April 22 court order from Kenton County Family Court Judge Lisa Bushelman reads "no allegation of domestic violence."

But on Aug. 6, Mathis followed Waters to her Fort Thomas workplace, chased her through the parking lot and into the building, shot her five times and then shot and killed himself, police said.

Fort Thomas City Council passed a resolution Monday to ask the Kentucky Legislature to enact a three-day waiting period for the purchase of firearms.

Councilman Ken Bowman said he has always thought Kentucky should have a three-day waiting period, and when he learned Mathis purchased his gun one day before Waters was shot, he felt it was time for council to support a three-day wait for firearms purchases.

The resolution is headed for Frankfort, Bowman said. Fort Thomas City Council favored it 3-2.

Russell is hopeful her daughter's story will help people nationwide. She said tentative plans are in place for Alisha to appear on an upcoming "Dr. Phil" episode on domestic violence.

Russell said her daughter had advice for other domestic violence victims:

"Go to the police. Get an EPO. Make sure you have a lawyer. Go to a crisis shelter."

To Waters' cousin, 34-year-old Nikki Cole of Forest Park, Alisha is an inspiration. Cole underwent facial surgery after an ex-boyfriend cracked her skull, broke her nose and damaged her mouth in a beating Sept. 19, 2011.

Cole has been at Waters' bedside or helping the family behind the scenes nearly every day since Alisha was shot.

"For Alisha to have the strength and the fight and the will, it's amazing," Cole said through tears.